The noise from heavy equipment reverberating on the University of Nevada, Reno campus these days is music to the local construction industry’s ears — to the tune of $462.9 million.

That’s the amount of direct or indirect money that 10 projects the university plans to complete within the next five years is expected to generate in the region.

The economic ripple effect from UNR’s capital improvements also is projected to create thousands of jobs and add hundreds of millions of dollars spent by new students attracted to a revitalized campus within the next decade, industry observers say.

“It’s a real shot in the arm for Reno and the entire area,” said John Madole, executive director of the Nevada Chapter of Associated General Contractors.

UNR’s projects will create about 7,600 jobs, he said.

“That includes the guys working in construction as well as indirect suppliers and the guy who sells hot dogs to the guys on the job,” Madole said.

“It certainly comes at a fortuitous time for Northern Nevada. I don’t have to tell you what we’ve been suffering through during the last five years.”

Of UNR’s 10 projects, one is nearly finished, three have broken ground or started and the others are scheduled to begin site preparation in the coming five years.

They include the almost completed $20-million addition to the university’s world-renown earthquake laboratory, and construction that has started or will begin this year on a new residence hall, a graduate student and family apartment complex, the renovation of Mackay Stadium and a student achievement center.

UNR has five more major projects in its lineup, including a student fitness center scheduled to break ground next year and plans to have a new science and engineering building within the next five years.

Of all these projects, only the proposed new science and engineering building will require any state funding.

Other signs of an improving economy

Brian Bonnenfant, project manager at the Center for Regional Studies at UNR, said the center did a study last September that looked at the economic impact of construction on UNR’s campus.

Based on an estimated $275 million to build the 10 projects, Bonnenfant said the impact on secondary spending and household spending will add $462.9 million to the economy.

“It’s a tremendous amount of money,” he said. “If you look at the industries that support construction, they include wiring and fixtures and a number of other businesses that will be impacted by construction.”

Those businesses, in turn, have to replenish their inventories, and the construction workers will spend their wages on everything from groceries to cars, Bonnenfant said.

But that kind of indirect economic ripple effect comes with a caveat.

“All the labor and construction materials would have to come from the local area,” Bonnenfant said. “So to fully realize that $462.9 million, all the construction money would have to stay in the region.”

Washoe County has a large inventory of commercial and investment space, so there isn’t much construction work on those types of projects, Bonnenfant said.

“UNR is pretty much providing the construction industry with some nice bridging in some lean years, and the construction industry is still pretty lean,” Bonnenfant said.

In addition to UNR’s capital improvement projects, Madole points to other signs around town that indicate investors are recovering from the financial shell shock of the recession.

“A speculative warehouse is going in north of town that will be several hundred thousand square feet,” Madole said. “That’s a warehouse without any tenants, which says the owners have confidence that our economy is going to improve.”

He said the success of Reno’s Midtown district also is helping to thaw frozen investment money.

“I’ve heard from developers and owners who say they’ve talked to people who have been sitting on the sidelines for four or five years,” Madole said. “But now they think this might be a good time, and they’re looking at property and talking about doing things.”

The student factor

Bonnenfant said the university has been very aggressively working to renovate its campus, and that will add hundreds of millions of dollars more to the region in the next decade with an anticipated bump in student enrollment.

“I think people need to understand (UNR’s construction of new buildings) is an effort to grow enrollment,” Bonnenfant said.

“Projects like the Student Achievement Center and the Student Fitness Center are being built to recruit new and better students, and they will have their own economic impact,” he said.

UNR is projecting an increase of 4,000 students, bringing total enrollment to 22,000, in the next seven years, targeting students from out of the area, including Las Vegas and Northern California, Bonnenfant said.

At the end of that 10-year period, that growth in students will mean an additional $145 million a year spent locally on tuition, fees, books, room, board and transportation, he said.

That additional $145 million a year added to the local economy would not be completely realized until UNR reaches the full increase of 4,000 students, Bonnenfant said.

“With more students, you’ll see more bars, restaurants, pizza places and iPads and computers because those industries stand to gain in the region,” he said. “And what’s not included in this is the economic impact when their friends and families visit.”

The last boom

UNR President Marc Johnson said this construction boom comes on the heels of another one that began with the $59 million Joe Crowley Student Union in 2007 and saw 11 other projects completed through 2012.

Those included the $108 million Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, the $77 million Center for Molecular Medicine, the Davidson Math and Science Center and the $38 million Nevada Living Learning Community Residence Hall.

Between 2004 and 2013, UNR had more than $500 million in construction projects.

Over the next five years, Johnson said the big difference is that, of the $275 million worth of projects being built, the state is chipping in only $500,000.

The rest is funded by student fees, philanthropic gifts, money from other property sales and $15 million in federal funding for the earthquake lab expansion, he said.

UNR is following the directive from the Nevada Board of Regents and the Legislature to look somewhere other than the state to fund improvements to the nearly 140-year-old campus, the oldest in the state.

“So we are continuing to meet out objectives, but we are not waiting around for the state to fund everything,” Johnson said.

“We like to consider ourselves an entrepreneurial campus that sets objectives and finds the necessary investment funds, and you diligently work for them,” he said.

However, he said UNR will need help from the state to begin building a badly needed new science and engineering building in the next few years.

He said the university can only go to the same philanthropic foundations so many times and squeeze students for more tuition just so much.

“So we are expanding our geographic search through a comprehensive campaign,” Johnson said.

New facilities are vital to UNR’s core mission of providing high-quality degrees and research, he said.

“If we are going to continue to grow at the rate we have been, we are going to have to expand our donor base beyond going back to the same local foundations and individuals,” he said.

UNR projects since 2004

The following 19 construction projects were completed at the University of Nevada, Reno from 2004 through 2013. Combined, they cost more than $500 million

Argenta residence hall with Downunder Café dining commons

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Completed 2005

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Cost: $20 million

•
State funding: none

West Stadium Parking Complex

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Completed 2005

•
Cost: $26.6 million

•
State funding: none

UNR Redfield Campus building

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Completed 2005

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Cost: $9.9 million

•
State funding: 50 percent

Davidson Academy renovation in Jot Travis building

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Completed 2006

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Cost: $3.4 million

•
State funding: none

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension building, Las Vegas

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Completed 2006

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Cost: $10.4 million

•
State funding: none

Pack Village, including expansion of Bob and Nancy Cashell Fieldhouse

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Completed 2006

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Cost: $5.4 million

•
State funding: none

Athletic fields at former Manogue High site

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Completed 2007

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Cost: $4.3 million

•
State funding: none

Joe Crowley Student Union

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Completed 2007

•
Cost: $59 million

•
State funding: none

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Continued from previous page

Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center

•
Completed 2008

•
Cost: $108 million

•
State funding: 50 percent

Petersen Academic Center

•
Completed 2008

•
Cost: $7.5 million

•
State funding: none

Sierra residence hall renovation

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Completed 2008

•
Cost: $8.1 million

•
State funding: none

Anderson Health Science lab addition

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Completed 2008

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Cost: $1.2 million

•
State funding: none

Valley Road Greenhouse Complex

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Completed 2008

•
Cost: $6.2 million

•
State funding: 100 percent

Great Basin Science Sample Library at DRI campus

•
Completed 2009

•
Cost: $3.5 million

•
State funding: none

Center for Molecular Medicine

•
Completed 2010

•
Cost: $77 million

•
State funding: 5 percent

Davidson Math and Science Center

•
Completed 2010

•
Cost: $72 million

•
State funding: 70 percent

Pennington Health Science Center

•
Completed 2011

•
Cost: $34.7 million

•
State funding: 70 percent

Nevada Living Learning Community Residence Hall

•
Completed 2012

•
Cost: $38 million

•
State funding: none

Reynolds School of Journalism renovation

•
Completed 2012

•
Cost: $8.3 million

•
State funding: none

Source: University of Nevada, Reno

10 UNR projects are in construction or scheduled to break ground within five years

7,600

Number

of jobs

created

$275 million

Estimated cost for

those 10 projects

$462.9 million

Projected amount

of secondary spending generated

4,000

New students enrolling in next seven years, attracted by new amenities